Interest Replay - Midweek matchgoing

[cantagalo]

Forest 1 Hull 2

Forest are still in touch with the leaders but I think they have been overachieving and two defeats in four days represent a regression to the mean. Grosicki and Bowen regularly got in behind the full backs and at 0-2 Hull were cruising until Magennis got himself sent off. The last 20 minutes was constant Forest pressure but Hull hung on for a deserved win. I was though annoyed that they wore some horrible shade of green rather than amber shirts.

[Third rate Leszno]

KRC Genk 1-4 Liverpool

Genk is a funny place, a couple of shopping centres, a main road past the station, a town square and everything else is sort of suburbs and villages. It was also the sort of place where restaurants don't seem to want to make a quick buck from having loads of visiting fans in town, as it was an absolute bastard finding a restaurant that wasn't closed between 2-6pm. It was very friendly though, and everyone had a reasonable grasp of English. I decided I'd put a 7% cap on any beers I had, which left me in a much better way than many of my fellow travelling Reds, especially once they'd discovered that it was proper beer on sale during the match (rather than the usual alcohol-free pish).

Free shuttle buses from the station to the stadium, which was out on the far side of nearby Waterschei - where we'd parked our rental car in the early afternoon for a handy post-match getaway. Treated like grown-ups at the ground too, the searches were friendly, there was no netting between us and the pitch and the stewards were about as helpful as it's possible to be. The bogs were tiny though.

Crap first half from Liverpool, despite the early goal - could have conceded on more than one occasion, had Genk kept their composure better. Second period was better, only a couple of chances offered up, and then only when the game was won. No holdback at the end, more shuttles laid on (including one to Hasselt, 15km away but where many Reds were staying). We walked out amongst the home fans with no bother at all, jumped in our car and were back at the hotel by 11:45. The parking had to be seen to be believed, cars all over every bit of grass, central reservations, you name it. Cracking day out though, I enjoy games like this so much more than the big city ones in places like Barcelona.

[EIM]

Partizan 0 Manchester United 1

I flew to Dubrovnik last Friday and drove to Belgrade via Sarajevo. I've seen King's Landing, Tito's nuclear bunker, loads of harrowing war stuff, and Manchester United fail to have a shot on target from open play yet again. We've had six shots on target in October. Six.

The Partizan fans were predictably brilliant, but honestly, who could be arsed with all that constant jumping about and chanting? Not our end, who are getting more and more bored, resigned and apathetic.

We were held back by dozens of Robocops for about an hour and a half as the afternoon drinking gave way to evening hangovers. When the police finally thought we were safe from whatever the fuck was out there, we were packed onto buses and given a police escort back to the centre, where I got daft drunk on cheap pivo by the Danube. We may be shite and dull, but nothing beats getting daft drunk on cheap pivo with good mates in cities you learnt about in history at school.